Swallow this

Everyone from Gwyneth to Posh has a new favourite food supplement. So do you know your bee pollen from your maca powder?

So what are you taking these days? From powders to supercharge your smoothies,
pills to boost your brain and a roll call of vegetables lining up to be
hailed “the new kale”, supplements and superfoods have never been more
popular.

In May, looking nothing less than fab at 50, Elle Macpherson launched the
Super Elixir, a potent concoction of powdered greens that promises increased
vitality and an alkalising effect, and packs quite a punch at £96 a jar (for
roughly a month’s supply). And when the philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck
launched his new think tank, the Centre for Planetary Culture, in New York
last month, the cocktails had ingredients such as chlorophyll, kava and
damiana leaf, a Mexican aphrodisiac.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s favourite doctor, Frank Lipman, says: “So much of our food
is grown in soil that’s depleted of nutrients, it’s tough to get the
necessary nutrition from food alone.” In his